One of the bizarrest units in the generally tidy and competent-looking Habsburg fleet, this early armored cruiser bore the jaw-breaking appellation "Seine Majestäts Schiff Kaiserin und Königen Maria Theresia." She was sufficiently well regarded that Vienna despatched her to China as flagship of the expedition sent out to relieve the western legations at Beijing and wreak bloody vengeance on the Chinese for the Boxer Rebellion. The ship spent 18 months in the Orient, projecting a rare worldwide presence for the Habsburg Empire in these extraordinary circumstances. However, she was just a foreshadowing of a contemplated permanent presence. A small squadron centered around the torpedo cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth operated in Asian waters until World War I. All these K.u.K. Kriegsmarine ships were destroyed or captured by Japanese forces allied with Britain, in autumn 1914.
The Maria Theresia was unique in the Habsburg fleet in having the ungainly armored masts with internal elevators pioneered by the French. Somehow the idea never caught on -- it could have been the topweight -- and the masts were abandoned by the French after about 12 years as standard equipment. At the top of the masts was an armored gunhouse filled with small-calibre rifles and machine-guns: ideal for drilling boarders full of lead, or slaughtering Chinese. There is no record whether these positions were ever used in combat aboard the ship. The vessel's main armament was two 9.4" Krupp guns, mounted en barbette with a dome-shaped shield overhead. Aside from the main guns, the ship seems to have been intended for close-in work: suppression of smuggling, perhaps. She was well-found in smaller weapons with a dozen 47mm guns from the Skoda Werke in Plsen.
She was driven by triple-expansion engines shafted to twin screw and made 19 knots on trials; these engines were mounted horizontally, as preferred in the Habsburg navy at that time. On her first appearance, the cruiser was the most modern seagoing vessel in the Habsburg fleet, although by the time she returned from China in 1902, an ever-increasing flood of modest pre-dreadnoughts was starting to take over those honors.
Plans and Specifications
Specifications for the Maria Theresia:
Built by STT, Trieste. Launched April 29, 1893. Commissioned March 24, 1895.
Dimensions: 374' x 53'4" x 22'5½" Displacement: 6,026 tons. Armament: (2) 9.4"/35 cal Krupp guns en barbette; (12) 2"/44 Skoda guns; (6) 1.4"/33 Hotchkiss machine guns; (2) 2.9" field pieces; (4) 18" torpedo tubes. Armor: Nickel steel type. 4" belt, barbettes, sponsons, conn, bulkheads, casemates, and all gun shields; 2¼" deck. Propulsion: 6 coal-fired Kohlen cylindrical boilers with 4 furnaces each; (2) horizontal triple expansion engines developing 10,000 hp, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 18 knots. Forced draft: 19.3 kts. Crew: 32 officers, 443 men.
Metric Specifications:
Built by STT, Trieste. Launched April 29, 1893. Commissioned March 24, 1895.
Dimensions: 114m x 16.25m x 6.84m Displacement: 6,026 tons. Armament: (2) 24 cm/35 Krupp guns en barbette; (12) 47 mm/44 Skoda guns; (6) 37 mm/33 Hotchkiss machine guns; (2) 70 mm field pieces; (4) 45 cm torpedo tubes. Armor: Nickel steel type. 100 mm belt, barbettes, sponsons, conn, bulkheads, casemates, and all gun shields; 57 mm deck. Propulsion: 6 coal-fired Kohlen cylindrical boilers with 4 furnaces each; (2) horizontal triple expansion engines developing 7,457 kW, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 33.3 km/hr. Forced draft: 35.74 km/hr. Crew: 32 officers, 443 men.
Ship's History
The China expedition was undoubtedly the highlight of Maria Theresia's career. She returned to a Europe in the midst of a great naval arms race -- one which intensified only four years later with the debut of the Dreadnought. In the arms race, Austria-Hungary had been playing catch-up. Austria had only begun commissioning 9.4"-gunned pre-dreadnoughts in 1902. With new warship designs spurring renewed competition, ships like Maria Theresia were clearly obsolete even though they were only a bit over 10 years old. Altering both her appearance and her trim, the armored masts were replaced with ordinary steel poles after her return from China.
In the First World War, Maria Theresia was lumped with two much more modern armored cruisers, the Kaiser Karl VI and Sankt Georg, in the First Cruiser Squadron. However, she was not to join in any serious wartime operations with the other two ships, which were well-matched and capable of 22 knots, while the older cruiser could barely make 16. Instead, the sedate Kaiserin und Königen stayed in port as harbor guardship at Sebenico (Sibenik). From January 1917 she was assigned to serve as a floating dormitory for German U-boat crews. Two years later, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was no more; and a year after that, she was handed over to the hated Italians as war reparations and sold for scrap.
So why does this ship, of such scant military importance, rate a full-page article in our survey? The answer is simple: self-indulgence. With her bizarre masts, dome-topped barbette guns, and many sponsons, she was a real period piece of Gay Nineties warship design: too good to leave out. Although one could make a case that her sponsoned midships guns were an evolutionary step toward the better-protected sponsons on the Karl VI, one could make a better case that this ship was never intended for serious fighting. But in the ship's colorful originality, she was unique in the Habsburg fleet, and that alone qualifies her for a feature. One can just picture the armored-mast and elevator salesmen rubbing their hands in glee after selling a set to the KuK Kriegsmarine. Champagne and pastries were certainly in order to celebrate the deal. Did Count Montecuccoli contract for a set of spares, one wonders?
The Austro-Hungarian China Expeditionary Fleet, 1900
The imperial flagship Maria Theresia stopping at Shanghai on her way back from the late unpleasantness in the East.
Commissioned in 1899, SMS Zenta shows off her racy form. A regular in the Adriatic fleet, the ship was captured just weeks after war was declared in 1914 after a bloody battle with Anglo-French forces. Survivors were imprisoned in Montenegro for the duration, in conditions that made them wish they had gone down with the ship.
Sister ship of the Zenta, SMS Aspern was a stalwart member of the Adriatic fleet all the way through WWI.
The torpedo-ram cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth spent the rest of her career in China waters after the Boxer incident was resolved, becoming one of the most colorful and heroic vessels in Austro-Hungarian naval history during the 1914 Siege of Qingdao.
